OLG Tournament of Champions - Trip Report
I got to play in OLG Slots' inaugural Tournament of Champions. While driving there, my low fuel indicator light went on; usually, I would start looking for a gas station, but I wanted to get to the casino by a certain time so despite being more than 50 km away, I decided to risk it and not exit the highway to look for gas. It was the first time ever my gas gauge went that low below "Empty" but I managed to make it on the gas fumes!
I picked up the Father's Day promo gift in the casino. I then registered for the TOC. For the first time I've ever seen in a Canadian casino, there was a free buffet meal for the players even before the tournament started. The only other event I've experienced this was at the WPT Celebrity Invitational. At this TOC invitational, it was all-you-can-eat fried chicken, shrimp, BBQ beef, BBQ chicken, salad trays, cheese trays, fruit trays and dessert trays, including my favourite of yummy chocolate pastry. In the centre of the buffet table looked like an ice sculpture specially made for this TOC.
I know a lot of people in the GTA that like tournaments so I was expecting to see forumers and other recognizable players in the poker room, but there wasn't a single person I knew. The qualification for this TOC started back in February. I didn't find out about it until the final couple of weeks, but I cashed in my last couple of tournaments so I managed to squeak by other players who started playing months earlier.
A few of the players had flown back from Las Vegas & western Canada in the morning just to play in the TOC. I heard about one player who made the blunder of degen-ing at Niagara Falls well into the morning, and was late a couple of hours from when he was told to arrive. Fortunately for him, with the buffet meal and the excellent structure, he still had over 14K chips when he finally arrived. Unfortunately for him, he would have been better off continuing to auto-fold as he managed to not only be the last player in, but also the first player out! There was another player who never did arrive, but with the high Patience Factor, he was eventually blinded out not that far from the money.
Each of the 25 qualifiers received a gift bag containing the following:
- a hoody showing "PokerPro" on the front and "Tournament of Champions" on the back.
- poker cap showing "Tournament of Champions" on the back.
- PokerPro keychain.
- red stylus (works great on the electronic tables and my tablet).
This poker room also has a fridge and self-serve area, with free coffee, tea, and pop in cans (instead of being served with mostly ice or water). Other freebies I have gotten from the OLG Slots locations include: Toronto Maple Leafs poker chips, styluses and keychain. Another freebie was given after the TOC to a couple of players, but I didn't bother asking for it. Below are the details of the TOC structure.
Chips: 15,000, 30-minute blinds.
Highest Skill Level of 6.
Patience Factor: 40. This is higher than the $1,500 WSOP Events!
Blind Structure: slower than the usual OLG structure to allow even more play in the late stages of the tournament. For example, level 13 of the "A" structure is 2,000/4000+500 (CPR = 11,000) while this "B" structure is 1,200/2400+300 (CPR almost half at 6,600)!
The player with the most points in the Leaderboard received $500 cash and a trophy. The first place prize in the TOC is $2,000. A smart player suggested bounties; anytime you can increase the money you can win without rake is a no-brainer, so almost everybody put in their bounty money.
As I had told pkrface9 the night before, I was going to try to figure out the Nash equilibria and maximally exploitative strategies for this TOC structure. I was chipleader for a little while. With 4th place getting only 2% of the prize pool and the same as winning five bounties, my strategy was to push any +EV edge to increase my chip lead, and hopefully my hands will hold up and I will win at least five bounties along the way. Unfortunately, all the +EV spots where I put in a lot of chips lost and I did not make the money.
It usually takes less than 250 hands for the last man standing to win a single-day casino tournament; too high a PF or number of hands would necessitate a multi-day event. For example, when I won a Casino Employees Event, I estimate that I had < 200 hands. In this TOC, I estimate that it took the winner around 350 hands, but instead of it going past midnight, the electronic format with 45-60 hands/hour made it finish by 8:30 PM!
Unlike other PokerPro tournaments where my winnings automatically went on my PokerPro/Winners Circle card, the prize winners of this TOC got a paper voucher instead. The top three prize winners also got trophies, along with the OLG gimmick cheques and having their photos taken.
Hopefully, an Ontario casino will have another Tournament of Champions or other high-value promotion.
I picked up the Father's Day promo gift in the casino. I then registered for the TOC. For the first time I've ever seen in a Canadian casino, there was a free buffet meal for the players even before the tournament started. The only other event I've experienced this was at the WPT Celebrity Invitational. At this TOC invitational, it was all-you-can-eat fried chicken, shrimp, BBQ beef, BBQ chicken, salad trays, cheese trays, fruit trays and dessert trays, including my favourite of yummy chocolate pastry. In the centre of the buffet table looked like an ice sculpture specially made for this TOC.
I know a lot of people in the GTA that like tournaments so I was expecting to see forumers and other recognizable players in the poker room, but there wasn't a single person I knew. The qualification for this TOC started back in February. I didn't find out about it until the final couple of weeks, but I cashed in my last couple of tournaments so I managed to squeak by other players who started playing months earlier.
A few of the players had flown back from Las Vegas & western Canada in the morning just to play in the TOC. I heard about one player who made the blunder of degen-ing at Niagara Falls well into the morning, and was late a couple of hours from when he was told to arrive. Fortunately for him, with the buffet meal and the excellent structure, he still had over 14K chips when he finally arrived. Unfortunately for him, he would have been better off continuing to auto-fold as he managed to not only be the last player in, but also the first player out! There was another player who never did arrive, but with the high Patience Factor, he was eventually blinded out not that far from the money.
Each of the 25 qualifiers received a gift bag containing the following:
- a hoody showing "PokerPro" on the front and "Tournament of Champions" on the back.
- poker cap showing "Tournament of Champions" on the back.
- PokerPro keychain.
- red stylus (works great on the electronic tables and my tablet).
This poker room also has a fridge and self-serve area, with free coffee, tea, and pop in cans (instead of being served with mostly ice or water). Other freebies I have gotten from the OLG Slots locations include: Toronto Maple Leafs poker chips, styluses and keychain. Another freebie was given after the TOC to a couple of players, but I didn't bother asking for it. Below are the details of the TOC structure.
Chips: 15,000, 30-minute blinds.
Highest Skill Level of 6.
Patience Factor: 40. This is higher than the $1,500 WSOP Events!
Blind Structure: slower than the usual OLG structure to allow even more play in the late stages of the tournament. For example, level 13 of the "A" structure is 2,000/4000+500 (CPR = 11,000) while this "B" structure is 1,200/2400+300 (CPR almost half at 6,600)!
The player with the most points in the Leaderboard received $500 cash and a trophy. The first place prize in the TOC is $2,000. A smart player suggested bounties; anytime you can increase the money you can win without rake is a no-brainer, so almost everybody put in their bounty money.
As I had told pkrface9 the night before, I was going to try to figure out the Nash equilibria and maximally exploitative strategies for this TOC structure. I was chipleader for a little while. With 4th place getting only 2% of the prize pool and the same as winning five bounties, my strategy was to push any +EV edge to increase my chip lead, and hopefully my hands will hold up and I will win at least five bounties along the way. Unfortunately, all the +EV spots where I put in a lot of chips lost and I did not make the money.
It usually takes less than 250 hands for the last man standing to win a single-day casino tournament; too high a PF or number of hands would necessitate a multi-day event. For example, when I won a Casino Employees Event, I estimate that I had < 200 hands. In this TOC, I estimate that it took the winner around 350 hands, but instead of it going past midnight, the electronic format with 45-60 hands/hour made it finish by 8:30 PM!
Unlike other PokerPro tournaments where my winnings automatically went on my PokerPro/Winners Circle card, the prize winners of this TOC got a paper voucher instead. The top three prize winners also got trophies, along with the OLG gimmick cheques and having their photos taken.
Hopefully, an Ontario casino will have another Tournament of Champions or other high-value promotion.
Comments
Great TR. The forum could use more useful posters like you.
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In case anybody else wants to carpool or head out together with me & pkrfce9 for the Deep Stack with only 4% rake on Thursday, June 27, let us know.
I might be in for this...I'll let you know early next week!
Casino Rama had all its 12 poker tables busy today; as each table of the always sold-out tournament broke, it was soon filled up by ten more cash game players. Woodbine's 11 tables is full on many nights. Even Mohawk's two tables are full on Sundays. Fallsview has over ten 2/5-5/10 tables on weekends with huge waiting lists. Only GD sits empty. I hear players at Woodbine complaining that it was a waste of time when they tried to play at GD; this has happened to forumers like Flopped_Nuts & me, and most of these players may never return to GD.
The sooner that GD restarts the TOC promotion, the better. The longer it waits, the less likely enough players will return to get a tournament started first then a cash game going after. Just like PartyPoker is finding out, it is much easier to lose players to the tough competition than to gain them back.
You'd think some spill over on weekend from Rama would head to GD if the lines were too long, but I suppose not.
Ultimately, I think the reason for running tournaments with such favorable rakes was because of the aforementioned factors. I don't think GD ran them because that's just what they decided on. I think they knew supply & demand dictated they drop the rake in order to attract players.
I guess not enough players actually appreciate the lower rake.
I'd challenge you on that. I think "most" players look at guaranteed $$ and overall buyin. I think people on here care about rake (if that's what you were referring too), but I highly doubt the average person really cares about 5-10% of rake honestly.
Same concept of BBJ. No logic applied to it. They see a big # and go gaga for it. I think most people would pay 15% rake without thinking twice...
We are very fortunate in Ontario that all the OLG electronic poker rooms have the same low rake structure. I cashed in the $220+$10 Deep Stack at Western Fair Racetrack with only 4% rake. BigBob is one of the few forumers taking advantage of the sold-out tournaments at Mohawk Racetrack.